I have seen a few clips of him and understand his style (methodical and effective). Over the next few days I'm gonna bring myself to watch his whole title reign. While I recognise about 4 or 5 names in his reign I don't know just how good they were. I was hoping people could fill me in on just how good his opponents were before I watch him dismantle them. What did they have to offer, was it a strong/weak time in the division and were there any threats he missed out on? Thanks any info would be appreciated :good
Good resume + looks great on film/H2H one of the best in the division + very consistent = Monzon Valdez - best opponent - past prime after serious car crash - Monzon was stripped of one of his belts for not fighting Valdez in 74 - both were past it when Monzon beat Valdez twice - still very good wins - Monzon went out on a high note. Napoles, Griffith - great fighters - old and small. Briscoe - legendary perennial contender - very tough. Benvenutti - good fighter, slightly past prime - Monzon's best performance on film. All in all good division, nothing extraordinary. As far as i know Monzon didn't miss any big names.
Licata actually looks good on film and beat some decent fighters. Not a legend, but not a slob, either.
:rofl I think Tony was 50-0-1 when Carlos faced him in the summer of '75. Brings back memories; we drove to downtown Indy to watch the fights on closed circuit TV at the Indiana Theater on Monument Circle. The bouts? #1: WBA Lt. Heavy title scrap with Victor Galindez vs. Jorge Ahumada. I think this was the 4th or 5th time they'de met. (this was right in the middle of the Galindez-Conteh "come on guys lets unify!" period.) Great scrap, the best fight of that night. #2: Monzon-Licata. Tony, early on, was clearly out of his league. Carlos had him out on his feet around the 8th as the ref stepped in if memory serves me correctly. #3: Ali-Bugner HW Title fight from Kwala Lampur. I was a big Bugner fan until this fight. To all the Bugner nut-huggers out there...never has so little been accomplished with so much potential. IMO? A piece of under-achieving crap. We wanted to walk out by the mid-rounds. Back to the thread. Carlos was the real deal. He had the whole package and...like Ali, Gregory, and many other greats, impossible to KO. To beat him, you'de have to take it to him and bang him repeatedly over the distance, something no one was able to do. The previous poster was right about him and Valdez. Both were past prime when they finally met. I don't think Rodrigo was quite as good but both could step into any era of MW's and kick major butt. My $0.02
Champion is a key word in this instance. Monzon's title reign even on a p4p scale rates amongst the best IMO. Middleweight is also such a great division to rule over. Most prefer 135 or 147. For me, in terms of prestige it's second only to the Heavyweight title.
Griffith wasn't small like "what the hell he's doing in the ring with middleweights?" just a naturally smaller man and past prime. Still good wins for Monzon though.
Correct. Monzon had one of the best title reigns P4P bar nobody. One of the more complete fighters in modern boxing history. Everything from physical attributes to skills (both subtle and direct) to toughness (both physical and particularly mental). The terms 'deliberate' or 'unflappable' are anything but loosely used.
when i started on the classic back in 07 (**** I feel old) I knew next to nothing about monzon and thought his resume was blown up. I simply didn't get the hype then i watched his fights. painful, boring and uneventful as many of them are they are also brilliant exhibitions. monzon is one of the 5 fighters in history who you simply HAVE to watch to understand his immense talent